Experimental Modeling of the SAGD Process - Enhancing SAGD Performance with Periodic Stimulation of the Horizontal Producer

Summary Experiments on initial stages of the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process were carried out, using two-dimensional (2D) scaled reservoir models, to investigate production process and performance. Expansion of the initial steam chamber, its shape and area, and its temperature distributions were visualized with video and thermal-video pictures. The relationship between isotherms and steam-chamber interface was investigated to study the drainage mechanism. Temperature at the expanding steam-chamber interface was observed to remain nearly constant at close to 80°C. The effect of vertical spacing between the two horizontal wells on oil recovery was also investigated. For the Conventional SAGD case, oil production rate increased with increasing vertical spacing between the wells; however, the lead time for the gravity drainage to initiate oil production became longer. The results suggest that vertical spacing between the wells can be used as a governing factor to evaluate production rate and lead time in the initial stage of the SAGD process. Based on these experimental results, the SAGD process was modified; the lower production well was intermittently stimulated by steam injection, in conjunction with continuous steam injection in the upper horizontal injector. With the modified process (named SAGD-ISSLW), the time to generate near-breakthrough conditions between two wells was shortened, and oil production was enhanced at the rising chamber stage compared with that of the Conventional SAGD process.